Stained Glass and Orbo
by FlamingWolf
Summary: An encounter with a young artist changes Amon's life forever.


Amon could sense that familiar compound nearby. Why was there orbo in this back alley of the business area of Tokyo? He could smell it as he approached it, as well as the scent of...hot glass and paint?  
  
Slowly, he slipped around the corner and stopped in the doorway of the workshop of a shop that specialized in handmade stained glass. A young girl of about sixteen sat there, intent on a piece of black glass on the table in front of her. The paint was heated over a small brazier, and she brushed it lightly over the glass, silvery lines showing momentarily through the paint. A smell of orbo came from a vial on the corner of her workspace with a hole in the top, through which she poked her brush between colors.  
  
She looked up, put down her brush, and secured her bun more tightly as his shadow fell across her work. "Come in," She asked, in a mellow alto voice. "Is there some way in which I can help you?" She gestured towards a chair across from her.  
  
"I'm not here to buy," He said, brusquely. "I was curious about the origins of the contents in that vial." He sat, carefully arranging his coat around him. She smiled and laughed a bit.  
  
"Oh, you mean that vile concoction? I messed up a chemistry experiment in school. The result was the burbling, green fluid you see here, that strips the paint off of anything. I have to be careful when I use it, though. I dripped some accidentally on my friend, and she screamed for hours. Afterward, it seemed she had lost her ability to predict storms." The girl paused, uncapped the fluid, and looked at it meditatively. She didn't seem to notice Amon's momentary flash of excitement at the thought of an orbo that worked on contact. "It's a shame," She continued. "This stuff is truly beautiful in its own way, but then again, some of the most beautiful things in nature are the most deadly." She paused and raised a flirtatious eyebrow. "It makes me wonder how dangerous you are, sir."  
  
He lifted an eyebrow in return as he watched her pick up the brush and return to smoothing the color over the glass. The darker colors weren't very noticeable against the black glass, and he noted out loud,  
  
"The purple seems to fade into shadow. It seems these days that everything fades into darkness."  
  
The girl looked at him solemnly, and said, "Yes, I have noticed the gathering darkness in Tokyo. But in the case of my purple, it's OK. The darkness only stands to enhance the light; it makes it stand out more. People these days notice the good things especially because there is so much darkness." Carefully, she cleaned the brush, applied some blue to the glass, and squinted at the effect, then repeated with an aquiline shade. He wondered why she swirled the colors together, thus crossing the nearly invisible lines she had set. She glanced back up at him as if surprised he was still there, and seemed to read his non-existent expression, for she commented,  
  
"Sometimes, you have to cross the line to achieve the effect or the results you need. Blending two shades of the same color gives it a feeling of completeness." She stopped and stretched. "All of the many parts work together to create the whole."  
  
Amon felt slightly uncomfortable with this insightful female, and found himself changing the subject with the question, "How did you get into glass work?" He chided himself, but she took him seriously. She sighed and answered,  
  
"My sister was given into the care of a convent. I hoped that my designs would catch the attention of the church to such a degree that I would be asked to design, and thus could search for her. I want to find her again." She took up a pin and scratched the word 'wren' into the glass, blew onto it to cool it, and held it up for him to scrutinize. It was a study in opposites; all four elements were represented, as well as masculine and feminine, light and dark, with the element of Spirit depicted in the center. It was truly exquisite, and his eyes actually lit up in admiration.  
  
"Here," She said, dropping it into his hand. "If you like it so much, you may have it. I fear that no one else finds any worth in the old crafts anymore." She turned and walked firmly into the front of her business, and he heard her step climbing the stairs to her tiny apartment above the shop. Impulsively, he decided that the organization didn't need to know about this young girl and her miraculous discovery.  
  
Amon fingered the piece of glass he had carried for two years, remembering and agreeing with his cynical thought of "everything fades into darkness". His eyes flickered to Robin, and remembered the comment of the young artist: "the most beautiful things are the most deadly." It seemed particularly apt with her. The girl looked up at him, her eyes entirely trusting.  
  
"Darkness only stands to enhance the light," Wren had said. Amon thought back to the day when Robin had appeared at Raven's Flat. After she had left for the day, he had hacked into the STN network and discovered that the only familial connections the replacement huntress had was a sister located in the Tokyo area named Wren Sena, a young artisan who worked in the glass trade. He had rushed to inform the girl that her sister had been found. He had stopped, horrified in the doorway, to see Wren lying across her work table with a broken vial of her own orbo imbedded in her chest, her eyes staring wide in shock and fear. He had dedicated himself to saving Robin from a similar fate on that day.  
  
Wren had been right. People noticed good deeds when all around them was nothing but darkness. Amon looked around the room. Robin stood beside him. Nearby were Sakaki, Dojima, and Karasuma. "Many parts work together to create the complete whole," Wren seemed to whisper in his ear.  
  
He turned back to Robin. They were too much alike in some respects. He feared for her. He loved her.  
  
"Blending two shades of the same color gives one a feeling of completeness."  
  
Dammit, he had a mission!  
  
But Robin's eyes; so scared, so determined...so trusting!  
  
"Sometimes you have to cross the line to achieve the right effect."  
  
Amon made the most important decision of his life.  
  
"Robin..." 


End file.
